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Embracing change – a journey through metamorphosis

By Lanre Olusola
02 August 2018   |   3:25 am
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change”. - Charles Darwin CHANGE in Life is inevitable. Adaptation to Change is Optional. Your Experiences and Outcomes hitherto are dependent on your Choices and Flexibility. Although change is constant…

Lanre Olusola

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change”. – Charles Darwin

CHANGE in Life is inevitable. Adaptation to Change is Optional.

Your Experiences and Outcomes hitherto are dependent on your Choices and Flexibility.

Although change is constant to man, many dread it, wish it does not come; others ignorantly fight against or resist it to their own peril.

Unknown to you wherever you find yourself in the equation above you are making a decision.

So why not act swiftly and make the right intelligent one which is to accept and embrace change! To Survive and Succeed in Life you have to accept that change is a very critical part of the cycle of life.

So stop running away from or trying to avoid it, because this is an aspiration in futility, instead run towards it and embrace it? Knowledge and insight is key to the concept of adaptability to change.

Let me share the concept of metamorphoses with particular emphasis on the butterfly. With you today, this concept is still a phenomenon even to scientist.

Despite the fact that scientists have done several researches on Metamorphosis of a butterfly they are still unable to come to terms with what actually happens during each of the critical change phases (Especially the change phase of pupa/chrysalis).

As we reflectively look into the subject of metamorphosis of a butterfly, I believe we will learn one or two critical life and adaptability lessons.

What is meta·mor·pho·sis?
According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary: It is a change of physical form, structure, or substance especially by supernatural means.

It can also be seen as a striking alteration in appearance, character, or circumstances.

Lastly, it is typically marked more or less by abrupt developmental, in the form or structure of an animal occurring subsequent to birth or hatching.

The development of a butterfly goes through 4 phases: Egg, Caterpillar, Pupa and Butterfly.

The young budding caterpillar eats its way out of the egg to be able to hatch it.

So the egg is the caterpillar’s first meal, in order to grow its feasts on leaves. During this growth process, the caterpillar sheds a layer of skin 5-6 times.

The last skin shed happens just before the caterpillar wraps a pupa/chrysalis around itself.

Approximately 2 weeks later the caterpillar is completely transformed into a butterfly.

We can categorize human development in five phases: a fertilized egg (fetus), birthed as a baby, grows into a toddler, matures into a teenager that goes through puberty to become an adult.

Although the human development has an extra process with reference to the development of a butterfly there is a significant difference that occurs.

The anatomy of a human being is not radically changed into another form to enter the next phase of life.

Unlike the butterfly, human beings simply grow into the next phase.

Irrespective change occurs at each phase.

One of the most fascinating phases of a butterfly’s metamorphosis is when the caterpillar wraps itself into the Pupa/Chrysalis.

During this stage everything about the caterpillar changes.

The caterpillar as we know it is reconstructed.

The brain, digestive system, the sensory organs and everything that caused a caterpillar to thrive turns into what scientist call a ‘goo’. When they opened a Pupa/Chrysalis, they found no shape or form just a ‘gooey substance’.

Why does this matter and how is this information going to help you to accept, embrace and adapt to change?

The ‘gooey/formless’ phase is where most people struggle.

All of a sudden people get bored, they feel stuck; at this stage when they begin to work on change they become impatient because they are not seeing the fruits they want to see as fast as they want to see them.

They get frustrated, try to help the process or eventually abort the process and quit.

In actuality, before a caterpillar can spin itself into the pupa/ chrysalis stage there is a last layer of skin that it has to shed.

Even before the development starts happening within the pupa/chrysalis it sheds one last time.

This is the MOST IMPORTANT aspect of embracing change. Could it be that the current phase that you are in, is an opportunity for everything about you to be changed?

What is it that you need to shed in order to embrace ’The formless’ phase.

Could it be that your structure, habits, thoughts, beliefs, values and approaches have to go through a complete metamorphosis and become completely formless so that you can function in the next phase of your life?

Would you need to do like the larva, pupa or butterfly at each phase to embrace change? What is hindering your growth so you can live your greatest life? Are you ready to accept that being formless is not indefinite?

Another important lesson from the metamorphosis of a butterfly is that, even though the caterpillar changes and becomes a formless goo, scientists have found through classical conditioning that the butterfly still remembers that it was once a caterpillar.

The butterfly simply allows the process to start and complete itself.

With some kind of Intelligence, the butterfly know that one of the most DANGEROUS things to do is to try to assist the process at any stage: The larva, pupa or adult butterfly knows that it will be deformed or dead if anything interferes with the natural process of change.

Imagine a human being or something external trying to help the adult butterfly by Pulling on its wings as it naturally struggles to wriggle out of the pupa/chrysalis phase.

What do you think will happen to the tender wings of the adult butterfly? Will that intervention help or destroy the butterfly?

People have to be intelligent just like the butterfly, to know what stage in the Metamorphosis process [Egg: Larva: Pupa: Adult] they are currently in for their; Health, Overall Achievements, Career/Business, Spirituality, Relationships, Marriage, Self-Worth/Esteem, Home/Family or Finance.

Know that they can be at different stages with each of the above, at different times in their lives.

Here is a classic reflection and testimonial of Kemi, a client that I recently helped through a Metamorphosis Coaching Session.

“If I were to currently look at the integrality of categories for my life, I do find categories where I am an egg, caterpillar or in a pupa.

Nonetheless, if I were to “Holistically” look at my entire life and what phase I am in the metamorphosis stages, I would be a pupa, which is formless goo.

Every conscious limiting belief? Gone! Every excuse? Stripped! Fears? Confronted! Insecurities? Reframed!

Past hurts, Daddy issues and traumatic experiences? Healed with new perspective! Rigidity? Reversed to Flexibility!.

One would think that with all the above mention, I’d be ready to go.


No I cannot be ready to go yet, as I am faced with the reality that “I am formless”! 


How will I survive in the real world stepping out now prematurely as a formless being?

I need to allow the process complete itself as in try to fully grasp that the deconstruction of the ‘old me’ was only part of the pupa process not its entirety.

The other half is the reconstruction. Just like the caterpillar, I must first turn into ‘goo’ before my organs/elements reconstruct themselves to be able to turn into the adult butterfly I am ordained to be.

Although I am assured that I have now been taught methods and I have been given tools to survive and succeed.

Without their application it is futile and I am learning that implementing the application in my life will be a step by step and day by day process.

With trials, errors, failures, successes, corrections and readjustments.

I am understanding now that my reconstruction process will take time, discipline, endurance, accountability, transparency and a loyal support system that cheers me on and challenges me in my highest highs and in my lowest lows.

As I go through this tedious process, I have come to accept that I have to get out of my comfort zone.

Moving forward I am putting personal structures in place to make the reconstruction for my purpose easier.

I am giving grace to myself. I have accepted that it is okay to be formless and that as I go through the process form is gradually being created.

I have dedicated my life to serving humanity and I know that this reconstruction process is crucial for my full life expression and longevity.

I am starting all over again and it is ok. I have reselected the values I will live by, the beliefs that will drive me, the qualities that I am harnessing, my personal interest and the personal standards that I will live by.

I cannot wait to be the Beautiful Butterfly I was created to be; I now know that NOTHING can stop me”

FINALLY;

Like the butterfly people also need to be able to;
1. Accept and embrace change
2. Be flexible and adaptable to change
3. Patiently allow the process to start and complete itself
4. Know that embracing change doesn’t mean that you should or will completely forget your past, but that you should not remain there
5. Accept that trying to abort or help the process in anyway will destroy, deform or kill your final outcome

Remember that; the change you are afraid of embracing is the change that you need to change your life for the Best.

If you need help with understanding the many changes and stages in your life? If you need help with developing the ability to adapt to change? Call a Life Coach to help you today on +23480770077000, Or Send an email to info@olcang.com To Get FREE Coaching today go to http://www.coachme.lifexone.org/

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